"They all want to be James Dean. I want to be James Cagney."

I really like Michael J. Fox. I love that quote. 

I'm watching Little Caesar...It reminds me of Sleepers. If you've seen Sleepers, you should know why. 

But anyway. I need to get an orange cat now. So I can name it Robinson and have all my little Warner Bros. gangster cats. Although, that's not the reason I named my cats Cagney and Bogart. 

Cagney was given her name because James Cagney was, in my opinion, the greatest actor ever. People think of him, and they think of Rocky Sullivan. Well, while Angels With Dirty Faces was an incredible movie, I think of James Cagney and Yankee Doodle Dandy comes to mind. 

The first movie I ever saw him in was Angels With Dirty Faces. I'd enjoyed old movies before that, but mostly just the ones starring Abbott and Costello and Vincent Price. AWDF sort of opened up the doors for me. I thought James Cagney was good in it, but I wasn't amazed or anything. The next movie I saw him in was White Heat, and it floored me. This scene in particular: 

I realized what an incredible actor he really was after watching that film. However, I didn't realize just how talented he really was until the next film I watched him in. Yankee Doodle Dandy. Cagney started out as a song and dance man, and you can see how much he loved making that movie. He was the perfect choice to play George M. Cohan. I believe Cohan said, "What an act to follow," after seeing the film himself. I wish Jack Warner had been smart enough to allow Cagney to make more musicals (he made only a handful while on contract at Warner Bros.), rather than throwing him into so many gangster roles, not that he didn't do an amazing job with every single role he had. 

The real proof of his talent is in Mister Roberts. I couldn't stand him by the time that movie was over, that's how well he did playing the captain. And just a note, The Strawberry Blonde is also a wonderful movie, and it doesn't get the attention it deserves. 

As for Humphrey Bogart, the first film I happened to see him in was also Angels With Dirty Faces, but he wasn't terribly important in that movie, so I didn't pay him much attention. The next film I saw him in also starred James Cagney (and of all the gangster movies Cagney made, it's my favorite), The Roaring Twenties. Again, he wasn't that important. 

I didn't particularly care for Bogart after the first two movies, I had no sympathy for the characters he played. Which is why when I was told to watch Dark Passage, I was a bit hesitant. He was decent in it, and I decided to give him another chance. This time, with the Maltese Falcon. That was the movie that did it for me. Bogart's version of Sam Spade is the reason that Spade is my favorite fictional character. Not only did that movie open me up to watching Bogart's other films (I'm sure I don't need to tell you I've seen Casablanca since then), but it introduced me to Dashiell Hammett who has since become one of my favorite writers. 

Now, it's nothing against Edward G. Robinson, but I've yet to find a movie that he's starred in that really caught my attention. I've seen him in Smart Money, Bullets or Ballots, A Slight Case of Murder, Brother Orchid, The Stranger (I don't blame the fact that this movie didn't impress me on him, I've never been able to sit through a movie Orson Welles has starred in yet, not even The Trial, and I love Anthony Perkins), and now, Little Caesar. So the fact that I want to name a cat after him has little to do with the work I've seen him do. But I'm always open to suggestions, if anyone has one.